Not much to Gloat about Floats

Well, here comes another of my quick but crazy posts (technical you see :D..). I happened to spend some time yesterday trying to figure out a particular way of rendering a HTML page when I observed that some part of the text was truncated across pages when printed. That was when this post originated. After spending hours on the issue, the samaritan I am, I decided that nobody's time is worth spending on figuring out this issue. Though initially very obscure, the culprit was "Float".

I wouldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams that such an innocuous CSS element could be such a potential blockhead. Now that I had promised to keep my post really short, let me try to put this in the most straight forward terms..

Float : is a CSS property of any object (object.style.cssFloat) that can be set to "left", "right", "inherit" or "none".

Purpose : Initially created for placing text or images within a container. But this usage can even be extended to other container elements like DIV, SPAN etc..

Usages : object {
float:left
}

(DiV1) (span1 style="float:left")

(/span1)
(span2)

(/span2)

(/dv1)

Common Pitfalls:

* The most common mistake that we commit is not providing sufficient place for the element which we are floating. So if we have absolute specifics like width etc., we have to ensure that there is sufficient amount of space for the float to render. If not the browser dutifully renders it at the next line where sufficient space would be available.

* A good thing that you should always do while floating containers is to specify where the next element should render. For example in the above case, we have said what should be done with span but nothing about span2. Hence the browser would again take charge and render it as close as possible to span1, which is again a potential screw up. So having a "clear:right" would have been the ideal thing to do here.

* Contents of float element can overlap, hence all the inline entities should be placed after the floated element.

As a parting note, you might also want to specify the overflow of the container elements to prevent any visual mishaps. Float property has many peculiarities across various browsers and wouldn't be an advisable option to scatter it ruthlessly across pages. Moreover, the issues caused by floats aren't readily debugg'able. Beware guys ! stay limited with the usage of floats..

Remake rules !!

"என்ன கொடுமை சரவனன்ன்..."("What a disaster, Mr.Saravanann..") was all that I could say when we decided to watch the latest flick "Billa". Despite my earlier resolve not to venture into filmdom, I know that I have to commit this cardinal crime at least this once. Quite lamentably, it is once in ages that a tamil movie gets released in hyderabad, thanks to the remakes. Speaking of remakes, let me educate my non-tamil readers that Billa is the remake of the remake of the original, the original being the Big B's "Don". Oh yeah, it also happens that the first Billa was screen-presented by our "SuperStar" Rajinikanth.



As an all time fan, I knew what to expect from our dear "Thala" ("Head") a.k.a "Ultimate Star", as he is known to his dearest fans. There are certain things that has ever been beyond the horizon for our Thala,

* Expression
* Dialogue delivery
* Dance (There are more importnat things in acting, for Gods' sake !!)

But then there are several important traits that our Thala possesses,

* The trademark expression that never ceases to amaze us, his hardcore fans !
* The physique for donning any filmy attire
* Punch (both verbal and physical)
* Three day old stubble

Billa was a fluent portrayal of an anti-hero, with the usual glamor and grandeur that can attributed to the villains of today. The heriones were at their flashy best througout the movie. And dude ! You aren't supposed to expect expressions from the bad guys. They should be STONE COLD !! True to this fact, every character in the movie was at his/her expressionless best. Oh yeah, exceptions are that there can be comedy and song sequences at all inconceivable situations. But then they serve their purposes, they always take you by surprise :). Added to the hilarious chow was the DSP, main character in the plot being subjected to all sort of ludicrousness. Right from the hero to the comedian and a non-absolute kid have a go at the DSP. To be frank, Santhanam screen presence was the only time when the comedy was palatable.

A couple of songs flicked from the old billa were quite nicely remade much to the taste of the audience. Our thala looks ultimately fit throughout the movie. Obviously, he has literally ramp-walked umpteen kilometers in every song in the movie. The action sequences are the highlight of the movie where we have our heroine as a Ninja-girl jumping from the top of the Petronas towers :). Our thala can drive a car in such a splendid fashion that even NFS specialists would bow down in odium. The best part of the movie is the surprise element..you'll be surprised with the lack of surprises in the movie. This would be an eulogy to the old Billa as the director has not tampered with the plot maintaining its sanctity. All things said and done the movie is definitely going to be a box office burner, thanks to us, hardcore thala fans who would devotedly cheer every move made by him. This movie might not make it into the awards ceremony, heck ! who cares.. remake still rules !!

Movie Bottomline : Beware - Thala all the way !

Anger.. where art thou ?

"Don't you ever get angry ?" asked one of my close associates (accomplice ??). I gave yet another wry smile of mine in a cold fashion which would have even put off a wisecrack. The matter was dismissed thus with an utter disregard for the question.It was a couple of days later that I realised the question had struck a few strings within me. Something about the question disturbed me very much. It wasn't a serious impediment to my normal thought process, but it did lurk up occasionally causing some uneasiness within me.

When the frequency of this "gyan darshan" increased, I decided to sort it out once and for all. This seemingly simple remark had raised quite a few questions the answers to which wasn't as simple. I felt as if I had lost an emotion, an emotion which was quite frequent in the past. Now this part is very tricky, anger is definitely not one of the better human emotions that you would want to stick to. This is what happens when you lose something that you possessed for so long a time. The dicey part component is that you never know whether you should be happy or sad. Part of me was happy that I was oblivious to anger, while the other part was quite concerned whether I had lost the capacity to get angry...


The next few days were quite funny when I think of them now. I tried my level best to get angry at every possible opportunity. I hoped to surprise my friends with my "attitude", but I ended up surprised when they found my antics rather comical ! The more I tried to get angry, the more aware I was of my thoughts and the more I felt as if I were fabricating anger. It was pretty pathetic when you consider my attempts at getting angry. But there was definitely one thing that I gained out of this.. I could easily pretend anger with amazing ease. I was no longer artless...

Then one day it happened.. for a few moments my mind was under seizure, I couldn't think clearly, I was definitely in a different plane altogether. Some uneasiness hit me from the most unexpected quarters and brought along with it the emotion which I had lost. I was getting angry, but habits stay alive my dear; I could see and feel that I was getting angry. Well, it lasted for hardly a few seconds but again the impacts stayed long enough. For some strange reason, happiness was what I felt after that. I had not lost the capability to get angry ! Well, the next question wasn't far out there.. Does a man require negative emotions to make him complete ? Well, the search goes on.

The Godfather

This is going to be a unique post, quite different from any of my earlier ones. For once this is dedicated to one of my non-regular readers, who surprised me with the fact that he hasn't come across this masterpiece. It's come as a surprise even to me, a lazy bone like mine, undergoing all the trouble to draft a post at the most innocuous of times. This is going to be a combo review, a book -movie combo that I chanced upon to read-view within the span of the past week. I am pretty sure that each of my readers must have either read the book or watched the movie "The Godfather" by Mario Puzo. I happened to read it for the third time a couple of weeks ago when the inspiration to watch the movie was aroused within me. For the book lovers, nothing can equal the vivid description provided in the book. The smell of print and paper provides the icing for the wonderful delicacy wrought by the author.

Thankfully,for once, the movie provides ample justice to the book by taking into account the most innate details depicted in the book. For those who haven't watched the movie, please do so. Believe me, it is definitely worth it ! Marlon Brando and Al Pacino are simply amazing in their roles as Don Vito Corleone and Michael Corleone. Though the movie had some variation from the book, it recapitulates the charm of the story with its screenplay and music scores.Some of the differences that I could notice were;

* The history of Don Vito Corleone is not shown in the movie.
* Johnny Fontane isn't a very prominent character in the movie.
* The character of Dr.Jules is not even mentioned in the movie.
* The plot in the movie ends with the murder of the heads of the five families whereas the book is more benevolent, killing just the Tattaglia and Barzini.

The movie does score over the book in certain areas; the pace is quite pleasant in the movie whereas the book seems to be a bit too descriptive in certain places like Michael's stay in Corleone. The movie shows the cold-blooded politeness of the underworld in a scintillating fashion which seems extremely realistic. The music scores are so wonderful that it makes an impact on you without diverting the attention from the screenplay. Brando's presence is the magical mix that makes the movie a marvel. The scene where he says "Look, how they have massacared my boy!" to the undertaker Bonasera is one of the masterpiece of acting that has ever come up on the silver screen. The dialogues spoken in Italian have actually added the realistic flavor to the movie, despite this being not being a bi-lingual flick. No wonder the movie has been rated, the third best movie of the century ! Irrespective of the cause, the result is the same..Be it the movie or the book, both issue out an offer which you can't refuse !!

Happy Happy days !!

Back to a movie review says the Titan, No, not just because my readers prefer it, but because the Titan feels like writing one today. Its been aeons since I felt any movie was good enough to be even reviewed. Let me bang in no surprises, my dear readers, I was already a Sekhar Kammula fan and just couldnt miss out his latest flick, "Happy Days". The only telugu movies that I relish watching inevitably turn out to be kammula's and thats how I found myself being converted into a fan of his. Typical of his movies, the story is neither brilliant nor unearthly. "Happy Days" is a very commonplace movie that even one of can contrive. But that's what makes Kammula stand apart, the way he transforms these seemingly trivial stuff into the magical movies is simply amazing.

Happy days spans over the four years of a bunch of college going students. Thats all the story is about !! Reminded of Godavari ?? :-)... Well, thats Kammula for you. Coming back to 'happy days', the story begins with the most intimate description of the life of freshers stepping into the engineering colleges. The way each of the lead characters is defined is simply amazing which every you can easily identify yourself with. A studious and all serious guy, a simpleton coming up the hard way, a sincere and devoted guy who does all things with utmost patience, an easy-go rich brat, an all rounder with not-so-bad marksheets, a tom-boyish girl, a college beauty... just name any kinda character you want, you get it in the movie. Among these, two characters deserve a definite mention here and are provided a bit stronger outline than the others. First, Rajesh the typical big shot's son who has entered with one eternal goal, somehow spend four years at college and get a certificate. The second would be Tyson, the straight-forward, ultra patient and steadfast student who perseveres to achieve his end.

The first half exhibits the typical samples of college life,
> Ragging
> Nagging
> Engineering drawing :P
> canteen restrictions
> English lecturer
> Fresher's party (Ahem..)
> x-year vs z-year tussles
> Assignments and night-outs before exams
> Tours (industrial visits ?? )
> 'extraaa'- curricular activities (Okay .. here I would let the readers guess the rest :D)

Typical to the Indian movies, there is the usual college-romance between a couple of the lead pairs. The movie touches almost all the pleasurable aspects of engineering education. (Well, what else could the director afford to show ..even a fleeting glimpse of electrical lab could have put me off !!) But we have to give due credit to the screenplay, it simply zips you back to your college days. The rest of the movie is a mixture of break-ups, patch ups, and mix-ups. What makes the movie magical is the detail of on-screen depiction, minor facts like hostel mess, club-rooms, same-pinche's and anniversary-trees are shown so casually that it literally transports the audience into the college-campus. For example, the scene where one of the guys borrows money and bike from his gang shows the level of attention given to each section of the screenplay and direction. The movie is strewn with an amazing array of songs which are again typical of Kammula's movies. Kudos to Mickey for his absolutely stunning music scores ! Also the entire movie is shot within the same college premises (CBIT, Hyd) which again shows that low-budget movies can also be money-makers.

As with other Kammula movies, the comedy is subtle and adds gaiety to the story. With such a weak story line it simply amazes me how the movie manages to hold your attention for the entire duration of the movie. Well, who cares.. as long as I don't have to comprehend human-impossible feats and out-of-place characters, I am a happy audience. But identifying yourself with the characters of the movie is quite a different recipe that leaves a lingering aroma and tinge of joy in your heart !

This time the benefactor was... Nagarjunasagar !

No way !! was my response when my roommie broke out the news.. We were planning to go on a one day trip to Nagarjunasagar. But I knew, my instincts told me that the unavoidable was to come...we didn't have a choice, we had been mystified by the unseen forces of nature which lured us into the travel mode. The odds were against us, the heavy rainfall on the previous days, the impending danger of floods and the high alert sounded in lieu of Ganesh chathurthi. The thrill, yes, that was the prime mover that provided our bones,the usually lazy ones, with the motivation to move. The trip had its attractions too, twelve of the twenty flood-gates were opened due to the heavy inflow of water in the cachement. Rest assured...we were gonna have plenty of water.

Biking down to Nagarjunasagar would have been a biker's paradise if it weren't "raining, and so we decided to teleport ourselves by means of a cab. Another fact which went in favor of a cab was that we were fourteen (more ??)in number. 'Well begun is half done' goes well for a trip to Nagarjunasagar. Beginning early is extremely important for two reasons
1. If you are biking, the sun can get really hot by noon.
2. The boating ends at 13:00 hours. If you go a minute later than this, you'll cut your sight-seeing contents by half ! (Disclaimer : The same can happen if you choose to go during rainy seasons !!).

Okay, lets get right into the proper travelogue mode now..

Places of Interest :

1. Nagarjunasagar dam

The dam by itself is a splendid entertainer with its huge form and grace. If you happen to be a frequent dam visitor, then you'll be surprised to know that no traffic (inclusive of humans :P) is allowed over the dam under any circumstances whatsoever. Nevertheless it's still fun to watch the water gush out in huge torrents forming a facade over the entire height of the structure.

2. Nagarjunakonda :

I have twice embarked on a trip to Nagarjunasagar, but never have i set my eyes upon this place. It is supposed to be one of the main attractions of nagarjunasagar. The boating begins from the cachement base where the APTDC building is hosted. You have a couple of snacks counter apart from the boating booking office in that building. I have heard that there is a museum of great renown, but then the trip to the islet is by means of a boat which attracts me more than the museum. Since I lack the capacity to further extempore on some place which I have never seen before, I'll drop of from this section for now. But hey ! one thing I can say for sure.. if you want to see the place there are two things that you shouldn't do :

1. Come during rainy season as the level of water might rise providing the officials enough reasons to dock the boats.
2. come after 1:00 PM as the last boat departs at 1:30 officially.. but this is one rare place in India where things run in advance..the last boat departs half an hour in advance :-) (say cheese !!)

3. How to name it ??

Okay.. the title says it all. I am really at a loss trying to find a name for this place. There's a bridge across the river immediately before the dam, a huge sprawling one that you cannot miss. But thats not the one I am referring to.. there's an old bridge that is broken and condemned for use. That's the one to watch out for ! Believe it or not, the feeling is entirely of a different plane if you were to stand on the broken rims of the bridge. The wind blowing at a mighty pace, bringing with it the tiny droplets of water from the dam outflow, the huge ripples formed by the sudden conversion of static energy into kinetic energy, its just amazing !! Unfortunately, the second time I went here, the bridge was barricaded to prevent any mis-happenings. Still we managed to find an alternative to reach the edge of the abyss and I realised later that it was worth the effort. If you want to take those movie-type still photographs, this is the place for you.

4. Ettipothala falls:

Exotic as the name might sound, the falls are equally picturesque. There are two things that you can do here. One, watch the falls, enjoy the beauty, take snaps and pack your bags, pay 20 bucks for this. Two, go near the falls, have a mini-trek to the foot of the falls, have a bath on a smaller section of the falls, and pay nothing for it. The choice is yours to make :-)> coming down to the facts, you can ideally take this up as the last lap of your journey since it remains open till sunset. Moreover, this is just 10 km from the dam site which provides you with the flexibility to go here at your choice.

5. The Banks :

This was the best part of my latest trip down to nagarjunasagar. Its a sequel to the "How to name it section" that you have read above. The other end of the broken bridge has an amicable and broad river bank which can serve as a hot spot to take a quick dip into the river. It can turn out to be more than a dip if there's plenty of water discharge,so beware guys ! the river cuts through deep enough to pull you in, so go one step at a time into the water. There are some reinforced steel posts installed at a location which you can hold onto if you indeed decide to have a dip. We decided against the local's opinion and went ahead to have a dip. It was worth more than I ever hoped for. With twelve of the twenty floodgates opened, the water was coming out in waves. The experience was nothing short of Miami beach (Trivia : I've never been to Miami before :P).

An ideal place for a quick one day break for any person, one which provides relaxation to the tired minds, refershingly beautiful waterspots, amicable climate and ample fun for all age groups.

Factfile :

Duration of the trip : 15 - 18 hrs

Distance from Hyd : 159 KM - 180 KM

Travelling time: 3 hours one way.

Mode of transport : Biking (tiring & enjoyable)
Cabs taken on hire
APSRTC Buses from Hyd

Places in and around : Srisailam (60 Km from N.sagar)

Best time of visit : Non-flooded days :)

Amenities required : Snacks (you wont find many around there.), a change-dress, camera, Jerkin.

Cost of the trip : Around Rs.500 - 800 (inclusive of an inexpensive lunch and dinner)

Bikers' beware : Return before nightfall, road is very dangerous at night.

Problem selecting text in Internet Explorer

"Mirror mirror on the wall, Who's the best browser of the all ?"

If you happen to ask this, you'll not be surprised with the answer that you get - Mozilla. True, with the recent anti-miscrosoft campaign gathering momentum the patrons of IE are being converted to the other faction. And to those who are in favor of IE here's one more reason why you should be thinking again...problems selecting text in IE has been an oft noticed issue. When we click on some text and drag to select them, one can see text getting highlighted incorrectly. The net result - you cannot select the text that you want..

Now that we have the problem defined.. what would be the solution ? AFAIK there is no clean solution to this, the reason being, it is not very clear why this occurs in the first instance. I have been able to spot one clear scenario when this occurs. Whenever the page contains any absolutely positioned element especially container elements like DIV's you can see this occurring. Overlapping div's make things more complicated for IE to render. Again I don't have any solid explanation for this behavior of IE but the only logical conclusion that I could arrive at is that IE is not able to resolve the absolute position of the element on the DOM hierarchy.Hence it tries to select the nearest possible element that it could resolve.. the entire DIV itself !!

Coming to the solution, I have to thank google for leading me to a solution or rather a hack that allows IE to identify these elements correctly. The snippet goes as follows

function HackForIE()
{
document.body.style.height = document.documentElement.scrollHeight + 'px';
};

I would like to thank the author of this piece of finding as this works perfectly. Unfortunately we really don't know why this hack works and enables IE to fix the position of the absolute elements correctly. You ll be surprised folks, to know that, more than half the pages that we browse are ridden with this issue. Hopefully future versions of IE resolve this for good if they want to survive admist the growing popularity of MOZ....

Of infliction and Banana chips...

"Announcing...Passengers of the Z343 flight to Hyderabad, please proceed for the security check." hooted the speaker above my head waking me up from my forty winks. I was blissfully napping, dreaming about nothing in particular. But now I had a mission to accomplish... "security check in". There has never been a problem for me before with the security check-ins (Anybody but my friends would agree that I ain't a terrorist :D) . I proceeded to the counter where the inspector was frisking the passengers in a professional manner. I went up when my turn came and he frisked me asking me to empty my pockets before doing so. Done with the formalities, he wished me a very amicable good morning. But then, just when I thought that all went smooth,I saw the officers peering into my hand baggage.

I ceased thinking.... there was my precious banana chips in that which they were trying to confiscate !! I shot forward to them and pleaded to allow me carry my precious baggage along with me. The officer politely refused admission... for the first time I felt like disliking the very act of politeness. It kind of prevents you from feeling the emotions that you should have been normally feeling.. Summoning up all the credibility I had, I managed to elope with those packets so that it could at least be placed in the luggages. I ran...right upto the point where the authorities were hauling the luggages in. I told the lady monitoring the process that I wanted to add a piece of item to my luggage. Another smile... another of those fabricated emotions! Have any one of you ever smiled when denying something to somebody ??

I boarded my flight brimming with the worst emotions ever conceivable: anger and sorrow...sorrow at the loss of my chips and anger at not one in particular. I sat thinking how could one inflict a wound upon a human with a pack of chips and to my surprise, several possibilities arose...

Possibility 1:

Make a banana rifle, with a high precision digital marker which shoots out saucers of chips at a rate which can make a star wars laser gun look like a kiddo.

Possibility 2:

Make a banana chips squash with lots of honey and milk with whipped cream and pour it out in the movable boarding trolley in hope that you can trip someone off.

Possibility 3:

Ensure that you eat a couple of chips so convincingly that other get lured to say 'No one can eat just two'. make him/her eat sufficient number of packets so as to cause destructive indigestion.

Possibility 4:

Grind the chips into a fine powder and hide a broken chip in it which could possibly get struck at the worst places quite alarmingly when consumed.

Possibility 5:

Start talking about the various potential threats faced by banana chips and call for a 'save banana chips' campaign against a politician to drive him insane...

Possibility 6:

Create a java script to bombard a person with banana chips 'forwards' using blackberry and make him go crazy enough to jump out of the plane without a parachute.

Possibility 7:

Place randomly broken banana chips under the seat of the person hoping to cause imperceptible multiple micro-molecular injuries which according to the reports of the first phase of molecular nanotechnology, can prove to be fatal.

Possibility 8:

Give our "Captain" a pack of banana chips.. and the magic he would do out of that is beyond the scope of myself and my readers...

Grrrrrr.... You might have now got an analysis of the state of my mind at that point.. Believe me, given the loss of my precious chips, I could think crazier than this...Folks believe me, banana chips are more dangerous than what you could have ever imagined !!

STATUTORY WARNING : Banana chips are a serious impediment to your air travel.

Handling multiple events in Javascript

This is perhaps going to be my first initiative to write a technical post, the effort mainly driven by my long hours of pondering over a problem that I faced earlier today. It was then that I decided that it is definitely not worth having anybody spend their valuable time trying to figure this out by themselves.I know that my usual reader's would find this a bit out of place, but I hope that they wouldn't mind this....

Events are one of the most frequently used features in the world of Javascript. They provide you with the ability to capture many user events that can help in designing more intuitive and user friendly interaction with any application. Some of the events that we might want to capture could be keystorkes, mouse clicks, mouse movements, etc.. All that we need to do to achieve this is to register the event-handler with the browser. On occurance of the event, the browser will call the corresponding event handler. This event handler can contain any logic built into it depending on the event that triggered it. Okay.. that should give you the sufficient overview of what you can achieve by using events. So lets get going with an example.

The most common and traditional method of attaching events with elements in a web page is as shown below.

elt.onClick = handler();
elt.onFocus = handler();

whereas the newer methods of using events and handlers are as shown below

document.addEventListener('',event_handler,false);
document.removeEventListener('',event_handler,false);

function_handler()
{
//do something here....
}

where event could be a 'click', 'keypress'

The race for winning the web-war between the two giants Netscape and Microsoft has had its impact on their way of handling events too. The above method is the one used by Netscape to register events. Whereas Microsoft uses the format shown below.

element1.attachEvent('onClick',event_handler1)
element2.attachEvent('onClick',event_handler2)

To detach an listener is equally easy..,

element1.detachEvent('onClick',event_handler2)

If you are unsure of the browser then you might want to use something like this..

function addEvent (elt, eventType, handler, captureMode){
if(docuement.addEventListener){
elt.addEventListener(eventType,handler,captureMode)
}
else{
elt.attachEvent('on'+eventType,handler);
}
}
Okay.. If you had observed the above example carefully, you might be wondering how this would work with multiple elements being registered for the same event. That's where the borwsers are smart. They keep track of the various handlers registered for that particular event, and they notify them all. But hey.., hold on, it ain't so simple.. you never know in which order the events are notified to the handlers. IN earlier versions it was not even possible to determine the order in which the handlers will get triggered. This can cause a lot of confusion when we have multiple handlers with the same target.

Now that we are familiar with the basics of handling events let get into the intricacies. Say for example that we have two elements e1 and e2 where e2 is deeper in the hierarchy. Both these are registered for the same event say 'keyDown'. Now when the event transpires, what order do the listeners follow in calling the corresponding handlers. Again, the titans opted for varying solutions and w3c ended up on a median. Nestcape said that the event should proceed from e1 to e2 (called as event Capturing), whereas Microsoft went for the opposite. Event proceeds from e2 to e1 which is called as 'Bubbling'. This is what we specified as the fourth parameter 'captureMode' in our addEvent() function earlier. Now w3c had to take a middle course by adoption both these models. For this purpose, we have a capturing phase and a bubbling phase.

e1.addEventListener('keyDown',handler1,false)
e2.addEventListener('keyDown',handler2,false)

where 'false' indicates a bubbling mode.

When the event on e2 is triggered, it starts off in the capturing mode where in it checks if the ancestor has any listeners in the capturing mode. Finding none, it will proceed to call handler2 and the bubbling mode starts off then. During the bubbling mode it will accordingly call the handler1 and traverses further till the top of the DOM is reached. Now consider the other case,

e1.addEventListener('keyDown',handler1,true)
e2.addEventListener('keyDown',handler2,false)

As usual it begins in the capturing mode on e2, and finding that the ancestor of e2 ie., e1 is in the capturing mode executes the handler1 before moving on to the handler2. Now if there were an element e0 which is the ancestor of e1 in the bubbling mode with handler0 then hanler0() would be the last to be called in the bubbling phase. Thus providing a feature to attach each listener with their own mode, it provides micro-control the order in which handlers should be called.

Now the next natural question is can we stop this bubbling ? The answer is yes..imagine a scenario where e2's handler should determine whether e1 should receive the event at all. We can stop the event from bubbling by event.cancelBubble = true which would prevent the next handler in the hierarchy from receiving the event. This could prove to be useful feature when the DOM is rich and you would want to stop the event from propagating up to the top of the hierarchy when there are no events attached to any of them. Please note that this is the method used by Microsoft. w3c suggests another implementation to do exactly the same

e1.stopPropagation();

so what do we do to ensure cross browser compatibility..? Its the plain old way of doing it..

function stopEvents(event){

if(event.stopPropagation){
event.stopPropagation();
}
else {
event.cancelBubble;
}
}

So are there any pitfalls here..? yes .. A couple of things that I can think of. Please do correct me if I am wrong.

There is no way of determining whether event handlers are registered to an element (in older implementations elt.onclick() would give you the handlers registered with it). So if we want to ensure that there are no other eventhandlers to an element we should probably use elt.removeEventListener(). Another issue that I faced was that the propagation in the capturing phase cannot be stopped. The only way to control could be in the bubbling phase, so one should be using the mode pretty carefully depending on the design. One other problem that I came across was something like this...

e1.addEventListener('click',handle1,true)
e2.addEventListener('click',handle1,true)

So now I had to determine what was the originator of the event. The solution was pretty simple, use the 'this' operator to determine the source. Recently I also realised that w3c had another variable dedicated for the purpose called 'currentTarget' which contains the reference of the element. But then I found this to work only with MOZ and not with IE. Perhaps IE doesnt have a 'currentTarget' implementation. However make a note that the 'srcElement' or 'target' would still be pointing to the initial element where the event originated.

And now if you might have any doubts, suggestions or clarifications, please post them as comments and I would be more than pleased to have a look at it.

Wimbledon '07.. clash of titans

"Yeah..." shouted Federer when he won a net point. That's something the media tapes should preserve like a treasure, for one doesn't hear those words coming out of Federer very often. Wimbledon 2007 has been a dull event so far with just a few sparks flying in the Federer-Fererro clash. Federer was definitely the one expected to win the title hands down. He did that but definitely not hands down as people would have imagined it. Things looked ominous when the match started and Federer raced to a 3-0 lead within 11 minutes of the start of the game. Nadal had barely warmed up when Federer was looking threateningly dangerous to breeze away with the first set. But Rafa was not the one to bow down so early... He ploughed his way back into the game by winning the next three games to bring down the early advantage that Federer held. The first set was an absolute treatise to watch and every one who watched the match had their pennies' worth for it. Rafa matched Federer shot by shot, point by point. The tie breaker saw Federer having three set points but Rafa prised out a couple of blitzkreigs to extend the game before losing it 9-7.



Take nothing away from Federer, for he played at his very best to bring out an amazing array of aces (totaled to 24 if I am not wrong) and kept Nadal lurching for points. Nadal is definitely not a great net player but it amazed me to see Federer miss his net volleys too.. Both played excellent base game but were highly error prone when it came to net points. Federer's smooth and stylish backhands were suitably returned by Nadal's curvy forehand top spins and there were many a great rallies played in this fashion. Both played to their strengths and one could see glimpses of an epic match in the making. The king of grass faltered just one time in the 9th game of the second set which was all that Rafa needed to seal the second set 6-4. This was the seventh set that Federer lost in the 53 matches and 5 years of this tournament !

The genius in Federer was matched by the resilience of Rafa and each held serves dragging the third set into yet another tie break. Federer's aces helped him seal the set quite easily at 7-3. Things looked dark for Rafa but the inspired Spaniard took the challenge by its horns and pounded the King of grass in the Fourth set to a whopping 4-0 lead. This was the first time that one has seen Federer run to every corner of the court. Nadal stamped his brilliance by playing to his strengths, his forehand shops and top spins were impeccable and amazingly accurate. Fourth set was quite a contrast to the first three, Federer looked lost and even cursed a couple of times... it was Nadal all the way.. Rafa whoppled the set 6-2 bringing the game to a 5 setter epic.

Federer had not broken Nadal for eternity (save the second game of the match) while the spaniard had comfortably broken him more than thrice. The first three games saw them hold their serves and fight hard to earn every point. Then the world saw why Federer was called the 'King of grass'. He broke Nadal twice in the set while the spaniard failed to do the same when he had his chances. Federer would have had a run for his money if only Rafa had to manage to clinch at least one of the breaks. You cant expect Federer to be too benevolent to give a second chance ;-) he ruthlessly murdered the Nadal challenge in the final set to clinch the tile 6-2. The Swiss exulted with a rare outburst of emotion.. it was quite understandable....


Whatever be the result of the match, one thing is pretty evident.. these two are the rulers of modern day tennis be it grass or clay... They have simply discarded the others from either versions of the game. Federer said after the match that the title could have easily been Rafa's too. He wasnt made to prespire as much in any version of the game ever before. Such was the quality and strength of Nadal. It was a fitting end to the rain-hit wimbledon where two legends fought with valor for the title in the presence of all time greats like Becker and Borg. With the fifth straight wimbledon title safely tucked under his belt, can the King of grass rest easy..?? Well hardly, with the way he was made to run for the title this time he can hardly afford to put away the Spaniard's brilliance. Nadal's performance in this final had thrown in many questions to the tennis world... is this the end of the Federer era...? Well, time will tell....

Story time..

Dedicated to my reader's who have consistently pulled my leg into writing a story...

I could see nothing, feel nothing.., numbness was overtaking me.. I knew that these were the last few minutes of my eventful life. I had been very important throughout and for the first time I realized that even I could meet with such a disastrous end. People say that when you are about to die, your entire lifetime flashes before your inward eye.., yes.. I am seeing it now.

This part of my life... it is called 'Happiness'. I was born important, an entire family was awaiting my arrival with great anticipation. I was born in Mumbai to an educated middle-class family. As I have said before, I brought joy into the family with my arrival, I gave them an identity in the society, I gave them opportunity, I gave them the oxygen they desired.. I was like Christ - the saviour for them and I relished that feeling of master-hood. I was the newest member of the family and was easily the object of interest right from Mom and Dad to the eight year old kid. Dad got through with an MNC soon after my birth and from thereon I was believed to be the lucky charm for the entire family. I was happy, very happy, happiest as any one could ever imagine.

Dad never left me alone and used to take me to all places along with him. I had become an important part of his life. There was this one time when he went to Europe on a business trip and I was the only one to accompany him. Mom repeatedly reminded him to take good care of me and to ensure my safety in the foreign land. Airports are the worst place and the officials the worst people on the entire earth. I was stunned by the amount of security checks that I had to undergo. Dozens of uniform clad officials walked around checking and re-checking each passenger and his belongings. They took me away from dad into a room for a couple of minutes, and that was the first time in my life that I was separated from my family. Those two minutes were like ages to me, I was scrutinized by a high-ranking official first and then by his subordinate and then after their approval was stowed back to dad. Gosh..! those two minutes scared me to death. Little did I know that this was just a sample of what was about to come.This part of my life... it is called 'Running'.

Switzerland was called as the 'land of dreams' and it truly was. It was so cold there that dad had to wrap me up to keep me from freezing. But I have to admit that I enjoyed my stay in the swiss lands until this incident happened..a ruffian snatched me from my dad's hands. It took a dozen police officials three days and eleven hours to trace my path before I was safely in the hands of my dad. To prevent any such mis-occurrences Dad decided to masquerade me and that changed my life altogether. I began to look different, think different...I felt as if I was slowly losing the charm that I possessed.

It has been five months since I was back in Mumbai, my birth place, a place that was dear to me. Since dad decided to stick with India having had a troubled European experience, I mostly remained confined to the two bedroom flat at Andheri(E). My exposure with the outside world ranged from the 'Kyon ki saans bhi bahu thi' that mom watched to the occasional BBC that dad watched on weekends. I hardly had any opportunity to go out either except on rare occasions where Dad took me to the nearby foreign exchange firm. This part of my life...this is called 'Sedateness'. Oh..! did I forget to mention that I was still masqueraded ?? Actually that state remained till this moment....the last one, I knew, before I would be no more.

Then came the blackest day of my life and I didn't know what was in store for me when dad decided to take me to the consulate exactly seven hours and sixteen minutes before this moment. It was raining torrents in Mumbai and the roads were flooded blocking traffic and wreaking a havoc. Dad had me wrapped in a rain-proof outfit and we were on our way in his car. We were just one block away from the consulate when the wheel got stuck in a slush irretrievably. Dad was usually a very rational and logical person, but at that opportune moment, in his desperation to reach the consulate, he pulled me out of the car and ran out in the rain. Running was easier, as the traffic had almost been at a stand-still owing to the flooded roads. Then it happened...I felt a jolt as a motorist hit dad from the behind and dad let go of me
instinctively to prevent a face first fall. I am puny sized and was pulled in by the flood current into an open drainage. Curse the MC for not maintaining the drainage properly. The last word that I ever heard from dad was "Holy Shit!"..... I flew clear off the main course and landed splash on bunch of floating scum. This part of my life is called "THE END".

I lay there with the water seeping through the so called water-proof layer at a slow pace. I knew that my end was near. I was being choked slowly and steadily by the water which was immersing me as if in an ablution. I could feel the suffocation gripping on me as darkness enveloped me completely. I could sense the stench of the gutter, the filth that surrounded me. I began to realize that these were the very last moments of my life and how helpless I was.. that was two seconds ago from now. The present had something else in store for me...."DEATH".

A gentle wind whistled past me, the first rays of the morning sun shone upon me benignly. I was lying on my dad's bed, uncleaned and dry but comfortable nevertheless. I could see the entire family standing around me and dad was examining me thoroughly. Dad's expression changed from frantic to helpless...."Shit !!" he said flinging me out of the window. I lay there on the heap of scrap wondering what I had done to deserve this treatment. All that was left of me now was a blue cover with the golden embossed letters reading "Passport"...

Inspired by an untrue story :D
Mighty Titan.


"The crappiest piece of story we have ever heard."
-The Livingston post.


"So crappy that you cant wait to finish it."
-The Wastes of India.


"The worst story ever told in this universe."
-All times.

"Enna koduma saar idhu.."
-Mr.Saravanannnn...


Disclaimers: This story is not about me, did not happen to me and is a mere figment of my imagination. Any resemblance to a person living or dead is purely co-incidental..

Coffeee.. cafe.. kaaapeeee..

Java...? heck no...this post is dedicated not to mere mortals, but to the ones who truly savor the ambrosia, the mere fragrance of which can instigate life, the best (or is it not..?) beverage that man has ever discovered..'coffee'. For a substantial subset of people in the world, their days cannot kick-start without a cup of coffee. Oh no.. this is not going to be yet another of my 'incident-o-mania' posts. This is going to be an erudite conglomerate of facts and figures ! So my dear readers, please wear your scientific shoes before stepping on further.

Okay.. lets now get going with the composition of coffee. Most of us are familiar with the infamous ingredient called caffeine. It would surprise you to know that this is less than 1% of the components that make coffee. The major contents of coffee are

Polysaccharides - 12 %
Chlorogenic acids - 15% (mono/di esters of hydroxycinnamic acid)
phenolic polymers - 20%
quinic acid / quinides - 8%
caffeine - 1%
water - 4%
minerals and other organic acids - 40%

Most of these components are not the inherent innate components of coffee. They are the compounds that are formed during the various processes that it undergoes like
roasting, blending and brewing.

Now moving on to the well-known stimulating effect of coffee. The main reason for feeling fresh after a coffee is because of the quinides. The brewing process results in the isomerisation of these quinides which have varying effects on our brain. While some research indicate that the synergetic effects of these quinides on a biological entity are healthy, certain others indicate that such hyperactivity cannot be handled by the brain. However we cannot be certain of the effects/side-effects of coffee till date because we are still quite ignorant of the effects of the numerous chlorogenic acids and quinide isomers. What we are sure is that the stimulant effect is due to the reaction of these compounds with the opiate system of the brain.

What benefits does the coffee offer to you ..? well, It boosts endurance by delaying fatigue and it improves long-term memory (Good news eh..?). It may help prevent kidney stones and it relaxes lung spasms during an asthma episode. And as you may have discovered, it stimulates your gastrointestinal tract. Moving on to the bad elements of coffee... it contains carcinogens(Homework: find out what a carcinogen can do to you.) which when taken in large quantities can be harmful. But then., hey who cares !! Its definitely the most refreshing drink on earth ! Remember folks .. anything cna happen over a cuppa coffee.. anything.....

Go Spidey !

No way I am gonna miss the review for the most awaited movie of the year.. Spidey 3. Needless to emphasize, the excitement was in plenty... when I say that,believe me.. I mean that ! We had even booked tickets almost 4 days in advance. If seeing an action movie is what you define as thrilling, seeing it in imax is an out of the world experience altogether.The big screen simply gobbles you up. If you as me 'can you touch your heart and say that you have ever followed an entire movie without missing every spoken word ?' I would today say.. "Yes..". The entire movie was of amazing quality with an unerring crystal clear sound.. Oh ! I am not canvassing for imax guys.. it's just that the technology amazes me.

Back to spidey... The instant hit formula of recapitulating the prequels during the title is what greets you as soon as the movie begins. And then you get to see what is quite unusual for an action flick... A song $#$%@@#$..! Spidey's gal is singin it and our spidey is a front bencher in the opera. Things are quite different in this spidey..

* The eternal belligerence between Mr.Jameson and Spidey seems to have abated.
* Spidey is no longer feared. He has now become the uncommonly common 'friendly neighbour'.
* Spidey can shake a leg or two.
* His gal knows that Spidey is Peter and gets ennerve of his success.
* Spidey makes a public appearance to cheer the kids.
* Spidey turns Romeo ! Finally decides to propose to MJ.
* Spidey knows how to forgive people.
and now the most important..
* Spidey aint a pizza boy any more..

Ahem, ahem...Okay.. I can see you getting the movie outline.. Nay ! c'on guys... after all spidey is one among the genetically branched out homo-sapiens.

Spidey's gal has been going through a rough patch where she finds herself as a restaurant singer from a Broadway star. And she expects spidey's 8th sense to tell him about her tragedy...no way..she wouldnt tell him her plight till the end. Now that unfortunately that strains their relationship..If that wasnt enough, during a public appearance, spidey manages to launch a kiss on the anchor girl(oh no.. not Shilpa again !! ). Yet another thorn.., the villain(???) forces MJ to say that she doesnt love Spidey any more. Gosh ! what a debacle.

Now if that wasnt enough trouble (Any mere mortal would have met his end trying to solve the previous bunch of problems), there are quite a number of 'yaenemies' for him to tackle. His former friend Harry still carries the grudge on Spidey for having killed his father and turns into the 'super goiyyaan' oops..Goblin.. and with his new found moves manages to keep the spidey webs at bay. A 'sand-man' (where do these ppl come from..?) seems to play havoc with the city's banks and later Spidey comes to know that he is the one responsible for his uncle's demise. No..No... wait.. there's more to it.. A symbiote (ET...! whoa ! way to go !) manages to crawl his way through to spidey. The symbiote can enhance the qualities of its host especially those of aggression. Now spidey gets attracted by the symbiotic suite (Dont ask me why it chose his suite as host rather than him..) and commits a series of mistakes before realising that the 'greatest battle lies within'. Finally he manages to rid himself off the symbiote only to pass it on to one of his professional (a photographer) rival, who uses the 'symbiotic power' (whoa ! that term is patented by Mighty-Titan) to seek revenge on spidey.

Now consider this equation of boolean algebra..

Let x = spidey, y= MJ.
let z= Harry.
let m= a photographer , n = the photographer's girl friend.

let -> represent unidirectional love

Then, x -> y.
y -> z apparently.
z -> y truely.
n ^-> x.
x = friend(z) - y.
y -> x truely - n.
z = enemy(x) + y.
m += x^->n?enemy(x):swornenemy(x).
m <-> n.
y ^-> z.

Well, if you can crack that.. you already have one of your foot in an IIT/IIM. Now now.. it aint that complex when are through with the movie. The plot unwinds solving one problem after the other and that is good news guys, coz Spidey can once more attend physics class (he is a class topper .. remember..?). After a couple of songs, a comedy track and a 'heart-touching' rendering of friendship, and a ultra-sacrifice the hero finally finds himself unshackled from all his troubles. Oh no.. have I mixed a bollywood movie ..? :P Think again....

To be fair guys..what I have stated is the post-movie analysis. It was an awesome movie to watch, a movie that you should definitely watch. The movie is packed with breath-taking graphics. The scene where the sandman is born is simply stupendous work. And the screenplay and stunts are something that you'll enjoy sans logic. The screenplay is extremely lucid and fast giving justice to the genre of the movie. Unlike other spidey movies, this one has a intricate mix of emotions which is what justifies the caption ..'The greatest battle lies within'. The entry of venom is quite refreshing and could possibly spawn spidey 4. After my recent movie debacles, it was quite a refreshing movie, one which takes you by storm for a little more two hours...

Technical References:
$gunu:bash$# Reference_1
$gunu:bash$# Reference_2
$gunu:bash$# Reference_3

Movie Bottom-Line : Bollywood graphicized.

The Kite Runner...

If you haven't heard of this phrase before, I'd rather that you don't read this post. Most of my readers are aware of my reading habits (If you don't, better try not to !) and the genre of books that I read. The *only* investment on books that I made in the past two months are on a classic by Dickens (The Pickwick papers) and 'The Kite Runner' by Hosseini. Modern writing is something that I am wary of after several lessons sponsored by Dan Brown and Adrian D'Hage. After deliberating quite a sizable time within myself I finally decided to buy 'The kite runner' for a sum of Rs.350. At the outset, I would say that it wasnt a bad investment...The Kite runner is certainly not of the class of Ayn Rand, but I would dare to say that it was remarkably lucid and pacey. It had the right blend which would suit all kinds of readers, not too bland yet not too grotesque.

The story line is based on the sands of Afghanistan, and Hosseini does full justice to his nativity but depicting a remarkably sketched lifestyle typical to that place. The entire script is in first-person which makes the transition of the reader into the character more easier. The narrator essays his life with occasional allusions to the future. Though the hero is the narrator, he eulogizes his friend with all the affable characteristics. The narrator is the son of a rich Afghan who has lost his mother in child-birth and his friend is subjugate to their family by nature of his birth and position. The author gives a vivid description of the mind of young kids with all its joy and aberrations. The author has packed in a couple of unexpected turns to the story. The narrator consistently projects himself as a person lacking in bravery and with quite a number of other detrimental qualities that we can identify with a 'normal' person. His friend on the other hand is a simpleton who is ready to stand in and protect his master-friend.

A kite tournament brings about a sad turn of events where the fear factor prevents the narrator from helping his friend. The friend happens to have an amazing ability to judge the aerodynamics of a kite and thereby able to 'run-down'(retrieve) a battle lost kite, hence the title 'The kite runner'. The narrator thereby loses his friend and his peace of mind for the most part of his life. He is forced by the ravages of war in Afghanistan to flee the place and seek refuge in the US. He and his once Royal father are forced to build a life from the scratch. The rest of the story deals with how the narrator manages to refurbish his long lost peace of mind.

The author has very clearly captured the state of a disturbed mind, a mind which has to reconcile with a conscious choice of cowardice taken which had etched an irrevocable and indelible mark on the future. He has been able to streamline the chain of actions that would flow out of such a mind. The author has given an honest attempt at raking up the emotions from within the reader, and I should say that he has fairly succeeded in doing so. The later half of the story can be appreciated if the reader becomes miscible with the narrator and steps into his mental-shoe while we read it. The story is so remarkable written that there is no redundant drags in it, it achieves what it was meant to achieve...touch the reader's heart. There are the right mix of emotions that usually accompanies a novel, repentance and soberness are in ample. The way the author has essayed the 'happiness of atonement' is simply astonishing. When I finished reading, all I could feel was
'I ran.......'

Say.. An intuition.....

A lazy mind is Devil's workshop..A weekend resonant with sleep is the most susceptible for contemplating odd topics. Very recently I chanced to ponder upon the word 'intuition' which was raised by one of my kin. It seemed such a mystique thing that I wanted to document it for clarity of thought, and thus this post came into existence. Pardon me if this post seems to be a broken array as I am literally penning down my thoughts in no particular sequence whatsoever. It would be better to start off with the definition of intuition which I would put it this way(because I simply failed to contrive anything better!).. Intuition is something that cannot be defined by its occurrence. It is defined by the absence of something else (I would replace 'something' with 'Logic').Ideally intuition is a thought which has absolutely no logic/analysis involved in it. It is easier to say this than personify this, because the word 'thought' is again very hard to be defined. These are abstract concepts that we are talking about and one should visualize his own version.
It is a know fact that there are various levels at which the human mind involves in each activity/inactivity performed. Most of the things that we seem to have forgotten are quite clearly recorded by our sub-conscious mind. A possible reasoning for this fact could be that our logical mind 'shelved' these items to be not worth remembering. That is how we sometimes blurt out certain thoughts, which make sense once we try to trace its origin. Such is the indexing power of brain. But this is not what we are talking about now, the only reason why I gave this particular example is to prove that intuition could be easily be confused with such shelved thoughts/analysis. These would easily pass to be intuitions whereas it could be a shelved thought in reality. Intuitions could also be simple reflexive or natural actions like ducking when a stone is hurled at you. Since most of us don't have the ability to read the differences between these, it is very difficult to say if intuition is a true concept or not. Due the absence of proof we say for now that there is no such thing called intuition.

Having said that doesn't mean that we don't have to trust our 'intuitions' as they very well could be one of our shelved out logical thought. There could be so many concepts that we have just seen working but have not bothered to analyse.. these could very well come out as intuition. Please note that here i use the word intuition as there is no logical analysis done by the mind, it is just an observation. In most of the cases these 'intuitions' would work perfectly as they are the results of a working concept that we might have just observed. It could also be the result of a very quick logical analysis of our mind. Something like calculation of the distance we jump. Now a disclaimer, intuition could also be a half-baked thought or a wrong perception of a fact. Moreover the moment you find that your intuition works awesome for you, the more you try to 'intuition'alise your thoughts. This could be disastrous as we would end up doing something that has absolutely no possible hidden rationale. So what would be a probable solution ..? I would say 'don't fabricate an intuition, analyse your intuition if time permits, if not go by what your intuition says'... it could after all be one your pre-analysed thought !

The in's and out's of Aurangabad

This is my latest attempt at a travelogue and I hope that it would prove to be a useful outline to those who wish to make a trip to Aurangabad.

The Gist :

Places of Interest : Aurangabad, Ajanta caves,Ellora caves and Shirdi

Duration of the trip: Two - Three days

Total Travel distance:
Aurangabad - Ajanta 120 Kms.
Aurangabad - Ellora 20Kms.
Aurangabad - Shirdi 135Kms.

Estimated cost (for a group of 6): Rs.9000-11000.

Season : late August to early Feb.

The Plot :

The first thing that one must decide on before embarking on such trips is the total duration of the trip. It becomes very crucial when it comes to micro-management of time spent at each of the spots. Ideally I would recommend three days for this particular trip, though with good time management and a light-weight photography, one can wrap it up in two days. In case you plan to visit Shirdi too, then I would suggest you make that as the starting point of the trip. As mentioned, the travel from Shirdi to Aurangabad would take around 2 1/2 to 3 hours and its best to spend rest of the day at Ajintha. Ellora being very close to the city, you can take a shot between the city tour and Ellora within a day. The second option that you can choose (though personally I would prefer the former) is to visit Ajintha and a part of the city on day 1 and Ellora, Daulatabad fort and Shirdi on the second day.

The Pinions :

Ajintha :

This place is a heaven for the art lovers, and I can tell you for sure that patrons of old-age paintings wont be disappointed at all. Ajintha caves are located at a distance of 120 Km from Aurangabad, the easiest means to get there is by engaging a cab or through the Maharashtra Govt. Tourism bus facility. Cabs can go only upto the parking lot(4 Km from the actual caves), from where you have take the buses provided by the Tourism dept that takes you right upto the mouth of the caves. Please take your cameras along with you as only videography is prohibited, you could very well use digi-cams without flashes and take as many pictures as you want. Also make sure that you engage a guide (charges were Rs.450) without which it would be more than the 'lost in the fair' situation for most of us.

There are around 10-11 caves that are of prime interest, as the guide would tell you. Each one of them have some Jatak tale painted on the walls. The first cave contains the two famous pcitures "Bodhisattva Padmapani" and the "Bodhisattva Vajrapani", each resplendent in its own beauty. They are both '3-D' enabled and so are many of the paintings on the roofs. Another piece of art that shouldnt be missed is a painting which has real pearls embedded in it. There are also some caves which were the dormitories of the artists who are also great Buddhist saints. Given sufficient time, patience and love for art, Ajintha takes almost an entire day to be admired.

Do's :

• Take your camera inside the arena without fail. Photography along the exteriors are allowed.
• Take food and rations without fail.

• Take ample quantity of water.
• Ideal visiting time :9 AM - 5:30 PM

Dont's :

• Dont buy food from the vendors, there is a serious ignorance of hygiene.
  

Ellora :

Ellora, a perfect complement of Ajintha is purely a sculptors heaven. Located close to the city of Aurangabad (20 Km), it provides the facility to be visited at any time of the day. Ellora comprises of around 16 completed caves among which the last is the most beautiful. It gives you the impression as if you were in one of the traditional south indian temple. You can find statues of almost every God in our ancient mythology. Any statue that you look at is of the highest quality and of pristine beauty. That's least expected considering the fact that three-four generations of people have worked on a single piece of carving. Such is the intensity with which one has to enjoy these great works. Each of the cave contains either a statue of Buddha or a stupa according to the traditions of Mahayana and Hinayana tradition.

Do's :

• Ensure that you take your camera along with you.
  
• The place is very peaceful, you may even want to enjoy the silence and solitude in there.
• visit as many caves as possible. You may find each to be differently oriented.
• Ideal visiting time :8 AM - 5:30 PM

Dont's :

• Avoid taking a guide there, you may be ushered into hurry.
• Avoid venturing into certain dark corners of the cave. It could be a health hazard. (Experience speaks ppl :P )

Daulatabad Fort:

"Appearances are deceptive" goes well for the Daulatabad Fort, which lies on the way to Ellora caves and so is often the sacrificial goat for the extra time we spend at Ellora. To begin with the disclaimers, this fort isnt so easy to climb as it looks. So if you are not game for a tough climb, please choose to admire this fort from below :D . For the more adventurous, this fort could provide you a mini-trekking with all the dangers associated with it. There are umpteen locations in the fort where you would fancy taking photographs. The very construction of the fort with its cascaded structuring gives you an idea of the theme of the fort. The minaret, the biggie cassock cannons and the bhool-bhulaiyya enthralls the on-looker with their queer uniqueness. The climb goes around in a circular path around and unfortunately there are no short-cuts, the fort was meant to be in-accessible and in-accessible it remains. It is constructed in such a way that at any point of time the wall is too steep and high to climb and thus forcing everybody to use the path laid out. The top durbar looks ridiculously simple considering the climb and effort it took to reach up. There are no ornamental works, no dance halls, no rooms.. just a simple courtyard where the air gushes in magically from nowhere. After the climb, you feel intoxicated by the cool wind that blows refreshingly into you. Sitting in this place, you can easily drift off into timelessness. You will be too tired to offer any kind of resistance that you naturally begin to enjoy everything and nothing, slipping into a state of nothingness. Perhaps this could be the reason why ppl of olden days worked themselves to tiredness....

Do's :

• Forget to take water at your own peril. In case you are visiting during summer, you might even manage to casualize yourself from dehydration. So remember to carry ample supply of water.
• Go during the day time. You cannot go to the fort after sunset.
  
• Ideal visiting time :7 AM - 9:30 AM

Dont's:

• Don't take heavy food before you climb.
• Don't try to take a single shot at the climb, take periodical rest if you feel tired. You wont enjoy rest of the trip if you break your back.
• Don't hurry through the dark sections of the climb. The stone tracks are very smooth and slippery due to periodical wear and tear.

Shirdi:

Unfortunately, I couldnt spend much time at shirdi as it was the last point of our journey. Nevertheless we managed to take a shot at the temple. It was extremely lucky for us that we could make darshan under an hour because it usually takes more than two hours even during off-seasons. The temple itself is worth visiting and would take around an hour to see. Since there are sufficient bus services from Shirdi, it could well act as the staring point or the terminal point for you trip.

Other places :

Apart from these major locations, Aurangabad houses a replica of Taj Mahal which is a definite place to be visited. Apart from that you have Panchakki, Aurangazeb's tomb and Grishneshwar temple (one of the jyothirlingas). All of these are fairly closely located and can be visited after the dark.

Tips :

* Please ensure that you get some lodging on your own. There are quite a number of lodges that are available at a little distance from Aurangabad bus station. Try inquiring at a few places so that you get a fair idea of the rentals.
* Even for the local sight-seeing its profitable to get a cab/jeep from one of the travels near the bus station. You could actually get one at a reasonable rate if you are adept at the art of haggling.

The entire trip will be full of fun and frolic if you can go as a group of 5-8 . Its wholesome fun to travel around the cross section of Maharashtra where the culture is quite different from that we see in southern states. It will be a glide to travel this part of the country if we make elaborate planning and take a mental note of the approach route. I am sure that this post will provide you an outline for planning a trip on your own.. so get going guys,.. and happy travelling...

Kudos to love

"Sching in the rain .. I am schwaiiing in the rain...! " proclaimed my mobile rippling out a cacophony in the voice of our Kaipulle. I lazily picked it up only to be coaxed by my buddy Mr.GK to a movie. When you are a bachelor, a week end without movie is a unpardonable crime and the poor guy wanted to save me from that blasphemy. Being the valentine week-end (though the D day was more than ordinary for me !!), we decided to commit ourselves to a dedication towards cupid. As the custom is before you any movie, I strolled around the theater looking at the posters of the movie. The caption went as follows..

                      Six different couples
                           twelve different lives
                 One common problem
                           LOVE.....

what the heck...??? Are you insane..? an entire movie full of problems..? Ouch !! where is this leading to... My serenity was disturbed by the rustle of the crowd, and a pair of hands pulled me into the tumult and before I could regroup, I was hoisted into my seat by my dear roomies. A man behind me played tabla on my shoulders and asked gleefully.. "Beta..., Kya yeh picture hindi mein hoti hai..? " Whoa !! No comments... "Telgu mein to nahi hain naa..?" No comments.... "kaise bhi ho koi problemmm nahi..." No comments ...."interval kab ayegaaa..?" No comments... "sunaa hai ki yeh pitchaar achchi hai... ha ha" .. No comments.. One hell of a company I had..

The movie began with the typical style of the Hindi movies of these days....A lovely couple living in their own lil' world of joy and splendor. Title time.... the titles sprang out of nowhere and ran its length wearily.. Bang ! appeared Govinda as a taxi driver.. when did he switch over as a comedian...? Bang ! appeared Anil Kapoor sitting alone in a room, staring vacantly at a digital table clock. Bang ! appeared Akshay driving a stylish car impersonating the rich cool guy. Bang ! appeared Salman as an impostor. Bang ! Appeared Juhi Chawla as a home-maker. Bang ! appeared Priyanka in a song sequence.. Bang ! Bang ! Bang !...... there you are, completely lost.., like a kid in a fair.

As the movie proceeds, the plot reveals and shows the faint outlines of the lives of these fine six pair of people. Priyanka, an actress who wants to move from the 'item' gal to be a 'Karan Johar' gal and Salman plays the prevaricated lover boy for her publicity stint. Anil Kapoor, a middle(old ??) aged professional who wants to have an exciting life which he seeks through a dancer he met in a train. Akshay, a 'kewl' dude who doesnt want to shoulder the responsibilities of marriage. Govinda, who looks for a valentine in a foreigner. And John Abraham, a man doted on his wife, a journalist who subsequently loses her memory in an accident. Whew..! I think that should surmise what the movie is all about. What....? Did the story fit in a paragraph..! No way !!!

People, believe me, I must be going cranky..... coz the movie lasted a solid 3:20 minutes on screen !! I felt thoroughly cheated twice, when I felt sure that the movie was about to end and the screen proudly presented the words 'INTERVAL' . Gosh ! Song sequences came blistering one after another in a never ending stream, sequence of dis-connected comical interludes and sentiment, sentiment and more sentiment.....! Ouch !! I almost had a heart-stroke... It seemed very complicated to me that though two people had mutual love, they had a zillion problems between them. For some inexplicable reasons each had an intricate problem that was infinitely complex to solve. The caption that I read slowly began to make sense to me... The director didn't get that one wrong...at least this once...

With these six stories going parallel, the movie marathon goes on and on... The credit should go to us all, for having the perseverance to stay on till the end. The screenplayer decides to end the movie bringing together all the pieces through some means or the other. By then, most of us are given up to deep to question any sort of logic in the movie. Oh ! and the man behind me was right... we dont need to either hindi or logic to get the movie right. Never I felt more weary after watching a movie.. Guys, sympathize with me... I am sharing the sorrows of six couples. ! Believe me people, we can never imagine love can cause so much a trouble.One thing is for sure... No more valentine's day for me.. ..!

Movie BottomLine : Pay for one movie, Get five free !!